Embattled coach Rodney Eade vows Dogs will bite back

WESTERN Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade has vowed to fight on despite conceding the disastrous loss to West Coast had momentarily rocked his belief.

As president David Smorgon last night moved to shift the blame for Sunday's 123-point defeat to the players, Eade told the Herald Sun: "We can turn this around".

"With any defeat like that, you take stock a bit and ask a lot of questions and some doubt creeps in," Eade said.

"Having said that, I've still got confidence. I still believe in the process and the players.

"It's a belting and you can't shy away from that, but we've still got to hang in there and win games.

"We need a circuit-breaker. We need to do something about it."

Smorgon described the loss as "humiliating" and the worst of his 15-year tenure, but strongly backed Eade.

He said the club would not deviate from its pledge to review Eade's position at the end of the season.

"It was embarrassing for all of us, but the coach didn't run out there," Smorgon said.

"We had 14 blokes out there who had less than eight kicks. The coach doesn't run out there to get kicks and marks."

Smorgon wrote an open letter to club members, apologising for the performance.

Eade, out of contract at the end of the year, is under intense pressure after three wins from eight games and facing a major challenge to lift the players for Sunday's clash against Hawthorn.

Smorgon said before the season that making the Grand Final would be a "pass mark" for the club, but making the finals now seems a major challenge.

But he hit back at suggestions the bar was set too high.

"At the moment there's some clouds on the horizon obviously, and our work's cut out," Smorgon said.

*!"We can't comment on whether we achieve that or not until the end of the year," Smorgon said.

He said it was unfair to suggest he had placed too much pressure on the club with his comments on Channel 9's Footy Show.

"Throwing this up as an excuse or a reason why there's too much pressure on the club, frankly we don't agree with those comments," Smorgon said.

"I, the board, the management team and even Rodney and the coaching team, we don't walk away from the fact we've had three years of consistent preliminary finals experiences.

"We got there because we were winning 15, 16, 17 games a year.

"We don't walk away from the fact we set high expectations."

Smorgon said Eade was "shattered" after the game and he had spoken to the coach again yesterday.

"We know the position of senior coach always carries the can," Smorgon said.

"As I said to him over the last few weeks, 'Whatever you need we'll support you to the hilt, and we'll continue to support and encourage you to find solutions to the problem'.

"We can still find solutions to the problem ... we're a couple of games out of the eight. There's still a long way to go. There's 14 games to go.

"All we can do is keep supporting and backing in Rodney and the match committee to keep turning players over and to try and find players who will give 100 per cent for 120 minutes of the game, week in, week out."


http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/af...-1226060826004

Do all the talking on the field. No more words

The poor coach and President can,t do their talking on the field. The players can and have to stand up and be counted !

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Originally Posted by OldBulldog

The poor coach and President can,t do their talking on the field. The players can and have to stand up and be counted !

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Don't think Rodney's poor, but he has to bear some responsibility for the worst result in over a decade and a half.

Note I said "some" not all and "responsibility" not blame.

I think both the coaches and the players are under scrutiny as they should be. No sympathy here for either; both will be judged by their actions not their words or excuses.

As for Smorgo, he's done a great job and it's hardly his fault, but he ought to have seen this coming. There have been management issues building up in the football dept that haven't been addressed, and to have trumpeted the GF aim when the side was in transition wasn't clever.

Utterances of late coming directly out of the club or fed otherwise to the media have not shown us in a positive light; hardly one statement isn't contradicted by or at odds with the next. Confusing supporters isn't a clever media strategy, even if it puts the baying media pack off your trail.

If anyone knows the truth about what's actually been going on with Lake and Cooney; two of our most significant players then they have a very good crystal ball.

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Originally Posted by alwaysadog

If anyone knows the truth about what's actually been going on with Lake and Cooney; two of our most significant players then they have a very good crystal ball.

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You can add Hall & Higgins to that

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Originally Posted by alwaysadog

Don't think Rodney's poor, but he has to bear some responsibility for the worst result in over a decade and a half.

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It is worse than that.
Agree Rodney must take the majority of blame, it is his list and his game plan.
IMO the way the game is played and the result this is by far being considered a underated margin than ever experienced.
Having said that Rodney has taken us to three prelims (unlike any coach in our history and deserves a chance to redeam himself).

In fairness to David Smorgon he said Making the GF was a pass mark.
He never made a correlation with his coaching tenure hanging on whether we make the last dance.